Robert Indiana

Guy Pieters Galerij, Knokke-Heist
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2002 

This work is in very good condition overall. There is scattered areas of rusting, discoloration and scattered scratches and accretions that are to be expected from the artists chosen medium and a work that goes outside. Most notable of the rusting to the sculpture are two circular light colored areas of rusting on the face of the sculpture and a line of light colored rust along the inside of the bottom of the O extending through it and on top of the middle of the “E.” There are thick dirt accretions in the crevices of the sculpture most notably in the dip of the “V” and an area encasing the entire lower area of the sculpture extending approximately 6 inches up that is also caked with dirt, rusting and other accretions as to be expected from a work that was directly on the ground outside.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

No image is as emblematic of Pop Art and Contemporary American culture as Robert Indiana’s iconic Love. The bold, eye-catching text-driven design has become a staple of Indiana’s legacy. Throughout the artist’s life and career, he has been inspired by the importance of signs within visual culture and their ability to capture meaning, desire, and emotion through the reduced and accessible language of graphic art. The classic compositional arrangement of the letters L. O. V. E., was designed for a Christmas card commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art in 1965. Even prior to this, Indiana began to explore the potential of the omnipotent four letter word in a 1958 poem, 'Wherefore the Punctuation of the Heart,' revealing his admiration of e.e. cummings and Gertrude Stein.

While Indiana's Love was initially conceptualized and executed in a two-dimensional format, it is its sculptural iteration that has achieved such lauded fame in Indiana's oeuvre. Indiana fabricated his first cor-ten steel Love sculpture in 1970 for the Indianapolis Museum of Art–Love has been rendered in a variety of colors, compositions, techniques, and languages–and has been a staple of museum and institutional collections worldwide ever since.

Describing the work as a ‘one-word poem,’ Indiana explained that ‘Love is purely a skeleton of all that word has meant in all the erotic and religious aspects of the theme, and to bring it down to the actual structure of calligraphy [is to reduce it] to the bare bone” (the artist in Theresa Brakeley, Ed., Robert Indiana, New York 1990, p. 168). Love brings to fruition the architectural weight of the compositional form through its bold typographical design and variegated patina. The stacked steel letters with the signature slanted O commit to a square format in this impressive outdoor sculpture, measuring 6 feet tall. The linguistic simplicity and striking geometry have become part of our cultural lexicon for one of the most complex core emotions of humanity.